Thursday, October 12, 2017

As we are almost midway through October, I was noticing our record lows are down into the mid-40s so it can get chilly at this time of the year…but not in 2017. We were spoiled with an early cool front in the second week of September, but since then temperatures have been way above normal. We hit 90 again today only 1 degree from tying the record high. A weak front did bring slightly drier air today, but it’s the next front on Monday that should have you excited. That front won’t get you scurrying for your sweaters, but it should whack highs back into the 70s with morning lows on the North Shore dipping into the 50s with 60s south of Lake P. Usually when we’ve been very warm for a long time, the atmosphere flip-flops to a much colder pattern. I don’t see that happening yet as even up in Alaska, there is no real cold air building yet. Typically, that’s where I look in the Winter months to see what kind of air we’ll get in the 2-3 week out time frame. If Alaska isn’t cold yet, don’t expect any arctic blast from plunging our way. We don’t want that type of chill, rather just enough to get us back to “normal/average”.

NHC is talking about an area of T-Storms east of the Leeward Islands that could slowly develop by this weekend as it moves to the northwest. Since we have a strong front coming on Monday, that would block anything from moving into the Gulf. So the “Fat Lady” telephoned she will arrive Sunday night and will be performing on stage Monday night. They will probably be 2-3 more named storms before the season wraps up in November, but for us it’s time to “turn out the lights…” Amen! Stay tuned!

If you saw more videos from the nightmare out in California, all you can say is…stunning, numbing, amazing…but to those of us in the weather business, not surprising. Last year’s rainy season was one of the wettest ever and that created a lot of lush vegetation or fuel for this fire season. California always has a fire season, but this year we knew it could worse since the Winter rains allowed for rapid plant growth. Unless you’ve lived through a “firestorm”, there’s no describing the speed and intensity of a wall of fire. Like an Earthquake, a wildfire gives folks little warning/chance to prepare.